[Python-Dev] Re: patchlevel.h

[Martin v. Loewis]

> When the release branch is made there's usually a flurry of minor
> fixes, and these are almost guaranteed to break something on the
> mac. Tiny things, like missing casts, but breaks nonetheless.

While this may happen in principle, and out of curiosity: Was this a
problem in 2.2b1 also? Looking at the changes made on the 2.2b1
release branch, I see that a total of 7 files was changed. Except for
patchlevel.h, and the \n\ fix on socketmodule.c, there were no changes
to C code.

So I can't see why the changes on the release branch could have any
effect on the Mac port, atleast in this release.

> Moreover, the "release loop" is now about 24 hours long, according
> to PEP101, and even extending it seriously (like to about a week)
> still wouldn't guarantee that I could react timely. Not only am I 6
> hours away from the unix/win release folks, but I also have a paying
> job that is less and less MacPython-related, so I can't firmly
> commit myself.

I'm not asking that you work harder on Python, I'm asking that you
work less :-) Seriously, I think there is a much larger set of people
testing the CVS regularly, so I doubt any breakage atleast on OS X
wouldn't be noticed within hours.

> And it has happened to me already (twice, I think) that there was a
> showstopper bug on the Mac that has caused me to either be very late
> with a release or skip one altogether. This happens on the Mac more
> often than on Unix/Windows, because MacPython relies on a third
> party unix I/O emulation library.

I sympathize with this problem, and I can't really suggest a good
solution to it. I'm also not so much concerned about concerned about
beta releases; nobody will care whether they can build 2.2b1 from the
sources on the Mac two months from now.

It's just that I think very strict principles must be applied for the
final release. If that means that the 2.2 release can't go without ok
from you (or somebody else who has produced MacOS 9 binaries), I think
we should add that to the release procedure. That check would be to
avoid show-stopper bugs only, of course - anything complex needs to be
detected long before the final release.

Regards,
Martin